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14 Sep 2017

Europa League: Crowd safety delays Arsenal-Cologne kick-off

Kick-off in the Europa League match between Arsenal and Cologne at the Emirates Stadium in London on Thursday has been delayed by an hour in the interests of “crowd safety”, the Premier League club announced.

Thousands of ticketless fans of German club Cologne arrived at the Emirates, while travelling supporters who did have tickets were unable to gain access to the ground as police and stewards tried to ease the congestion in the surrounding streets.

A match scheduled to start at 8:05pm local time (1905 GMT) is now set to get underway at 9:05pm (2005 GMT) instead.

“The kick-off of #AFCvCOL has been delayed by an hour in the interests of crowd safety,” said a statement on Arsenal’s Twitter feed.